The Golf Show 2.0

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle reminisce with Larry Mize about his Masters victory on the eve of this year's tournament. Mize was victorious at Augusta National, winning in a playoff over Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman, two of the most dynamic golfers ever to play. Mize grew up in Augusta, and so for him to win meant he became a hometown hero of sorts. He played the Masters 40 times, and this year is the first time he won't have a tee time at the storied club. Find out what he's going to do instead.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Rad Golf CEO Peter Johnson and Celebrity representative Blair O'Neal who many fans know from Golf Channel where she won The Big Break and now appears with Martin Hall in School of Golf. Rad Golf has speakers, GPS devices, hand-helds, rangefinders. In addition they have speakers, one of which can be programed to heckle fellow golfers. Heckle Sounds. According to Johnson, you can type in anything insult or comment you want to come out of the "Heckle" speaker. "You can type anything in it you want to say," Johnson noted about the Heckle device. The range-finder also has a way to track all your shots. "I played golf at Arizona State, and we would track every single shot," O'Neal said. This would have done it automatically.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Julio Quintana, Director of The Long Game, and Julian Works, the Actor who plays Joe Trevino ( no relation to Lee Trevino), one of the five who formed a high school golf team in the 1950s in Del Rio, Texas. The story is a true one about the struggles of exceptional youngsters who found their way and themselves by playing golf. The group went from back streets to winning the state high school championship in Texas, a state that is pretty well-known for golf and golf champions.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Hughes Norton, one of golf's first Superagents and his new book, Rainmaker. Norton signed, among others, Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, but also Curtis Strange, Ben Crenshaw, Bill Rodgers, Tom Watson, Mark O'Meara, Peter Jacobsen, and Bobby Clampett, David Graham, Nancy Lopez and others when he was in charge of golf at IMG. McCormack, who hired Norton out of college, soon assigned him to the golf division. Two years after delivering at least $60 million in guaranteed sponsorship money to Tiger Woods, Norton was dismissed by Woods. Not long after that, he was fired by McCormack but given a severance package of $9 million. Hughes has been silent since that time. He's now telling his story. The book is a wonderful read, and Norton credits George Peper, former editor of Golf Magazine, who helped him craft it.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle find out about the custom golf bag business started by two women, Erica and Debroah Bennett, who have created bags for individuals and golf teams, including teams for international competitions around the world. Their company is called Orca Golf although they were thinking of changing it to Where Did You Get That Bag because that's what so many people say. Newest product: Limited Edition Guy Harvey Collection, which will have some of the proceeds given to the Guy Harvey Foundation for ocean conservation.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Jay Stocki who set a new Guinness World Record for longest putts with a stroke that went 401 feet before finding the bottom of the cup. It took a team of golfers hitting thousands or putts at Black Wolf Run's putting course called The Baths at Black Wolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin, to set the new record mark.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle find out how good Jeff Cesario's golf game is. Or can an Emmy Award Winner whack a drive as well as he can write a comedy routine for Dennis Miller and Queen Latifah? Find out what inspired this admitted non-athlete to start playing golf. And, if you dare, watch Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden: Puddy McFadden License to Golf , a short comedy in which a "fallen" professional golfer, Puddy McFadden, gets his second chance at the Viagra Classic. Also featuring Amanda Balionis Renner and Rocco Mediate in the cast.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Emmy Award winner Jeff Cesario who wrote for The Dennis Miller Show and the Queen Latifah Show and also happened to be on the University of Wisconsin newspaper with Van SIckle. Cesario talks about discovering he was meant to be in comedy, how he learned to "exercise his funny muscle," and what it meant to be on the Johnny Carson show. Well, you can probably imagine that was a big help to his career...

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with 6-time Women's Long Drive Champ Sandra Carlborg as she gets ready for the World Long Drive Championships this week. Her longest drive ever is 401 yards, and before that it was 392. What's really amazing is that she is coming back from having recently had two children, now aged 2 and 4. Carlborg hopes to inspire other women to continue their athletic endeavors after having children and, of course, she wants to win a few more world championship belts. @sandracarlborg

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with 2-time World Long Drive Champ Kyle Berkshire about his recent record drive of 579+ yards hit in Wyoming. Berkshire thinks he can get to 600 with the right conditions. Hear how he approaches long drive and why he decided to go that direction instead of planning a route to the PGA Tour. You'll never guess what kind of shaft he uses in his driver!

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary VanSickle find out about the new Bridgestone E6 golf ball, designed in conjunction with the World Long Drive participants. Adam Rehberg, Sr. Marketing Manager at Bridgestone Golf explains how the properties of the E6 ball allow it to survive being hit by long drive contestants and still be a good ball for average golfers who want to be longer with every shot. And it comes in four (4) colors: white, yellow, pink and orange. ( While there's an unsubstantiated rumor that the yellow one goes farther, long drive specialist Kyle Berkshire likes the pink one.)

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Mason James of TruGolf descendant of a company that has been making video games since the early 1980s. With Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TMRW Golf program starting in January of 2024, more people may want to have some kind of simulator system, simulator room, simulator garage or simulator basement.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle find out about Neighborhood National, a way for golfers to create a simulator in their garages for use by neighbors who become "club members." Jeff Testa created the idea during the pandemic when he decided to put a simulator in his garage. Jay Hubbard of Ace Indoor partnered with Jeff to turn his idea into a business that can work for for many locations, whether a garage, a vacant retail space, a warehouse. So long as it's safe and secure, it has the potential to become you Neighborhood National Club.

Davis Love III guests on this episode of The Golf Show 2.0 with Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle asking him questions about Ryder Cup, both in his role as a player and as a captain. You'll find out what it was like to win at Hazeltine in 2016, what Whistling Straits was like and what his most nervous moment was as a player.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle interview Andrew Georgiou, creator of Golf Played a FREE app that lets golfers keep track of the courses they have played, hence the name. Van Sickle has played nearly 1500, but he's behind the leader in the clubhouse, a golfer from South Carolina who has teed it up at more than 2000 tracks. Now Georgiou is adding new paid option to Golf Played that will allow golfers to locate other golfers who are willing to them as guests at clubs in a variety of locations around the world.

Gary Van Sickle does The Rankings for Sports Illustrated every week. This time, he's sharing with The Golf Show 2.0 his Ranking of the Top 10 Players of The 21st Century. Who's in, who's out? You'll have to watch to find out.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with Tom Purtzer about the patience pros have in playing with amateurs, his victory and miraculous Texas Wedge shot from the bunker back of the 13th hole at Colonial CC, the sectional qualifying for U.S. Open where Larry Mize and Purtzer pulled a prank on Van Sickle, what Purtzer thinks about the distance issue and the proposed roll-back of the golf ball, what he thinks about the LIV situation. And Purtzer reveals that he has a new career in real estate.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle talk with George Perto of The Golf Heritage Society and Dr. Blyth Bell one of the historians from the Club Room at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Petro shows more from his collection including The Open Championship gold medal from 1947, which belonged to Bobby Locke, the replacement medal which was used for champions after the famous Championship Belt was retired due to Young Tom Morris' three victories, as well as a silver bowl that once belonged to Harry Vardon and a medal from the French Open golf tournament. Dr. Bell talks about important amateurs who won The Open Championship including John Ball who was the first amateur and first Englishman to win the tournament; Harold Hilton, an amateur who lived near Hoylake where the club is located and who won his second Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 1897; and Bobby Jones, who won The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 1930, the year of Jones' Grand Slam. The Open Championship was the second leg of Jones' Slam.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary VanSickle find out about the special historic collection at Merion Golf Club from John Capers III, club historian, and learn how George Perto , at large director of the Golf Heritage Society, found his collecting dreams come true with golf. We see some of George's U.S. Open medal collectibles from 1955 (Jack Fleck defeated Ben Hogan) and 1897 when Willie Anderson was kept from winning his first U.S. Open by Joe Lloyd. He also shows collectible pins, one formerly belonging to Ray Floyd. Then there's autographed memorabilia including items signed by Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods. John shows the putter used by David Graham to win his second major, U.S. Open in 1981 at Merion, and the shoes Justin Rose wore winning his U.S. Open.

Co-hosts Kathy Bissell and Gary Van Sickle discuss several topics with Ted Bishop, past Pres. of the PGA of America. Included in this jam-packed show: The improved quality of high school and college golf, how the the transfer portal has affected the sport; the surprise of the new entity that will be created by the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and PIF and how that affects players who did not take leave the PGA Tour; the money and the PIF and 9/11; the question of whether PIF can grow the game compared to PGA of America members; whether or not the US government will let the "merger" happen; whether the US LIV players will be able to play Ryder Cup -- Ted explains the PGA of America's rules on that issue; the reported size of the Tour's legal fees; why the PGA of America moved to Texas from Florida and how work from home has helped increase rounds of golf.